situations, insensitivity to customer
complaints, and widely shared, if isolated,
incidents of driver horrort stories. Uber’s
rating system goes a long way toward
ensuring a good experience for customers,
but it has drawbacks. The company also
ran into some reputation roadblocks when
it made the decision to outsource customer
relations to “centers of excellence” outside
the U.S. It was reported that about 500
customer service reps were let go, leading
to a bumpy transition, not to mention
resentment among those fired without
notice. In 2016, however, it seemed to
steer things back onto a positive path. ways to gel PR and guarantee customer
satisfaction is to align the goals of public
relations and customer service. You get
what you incentivize. typically adds insult to injury is a lengthy
wait where a complaint is escalated, or a
non-response in the face of a legitimate
problem.
Too
often,
customer
relations
representatives have goals related to the
volume of inquiries handled. Meanwhile,
the PR team is working to earn positive
media coverage or drive a perception of
value. If customer relations are evaluated
and incentivized instead by complaint
resolution
rates, and/or
customer
satisfaction survey scores, the teams will
then be working toward similar goals. As earlier noted, an enlightened business
recognizes that it is in its own interest
to enhance customer satisfaction; since
an enhanced public image is more likely
to be attractive to investors - employees,
customers, consumers, regulators and
suppliers.
Amazon has set the standard for customer
commitment, giving rise to much debate
and coverage of the “amazonification” of
commerce. Although its customer service
isn’t perfect, it’s nearly always innovative,
and Amazon exerts an outsize influence by
pushing others in retail to raise their own
criteria. The true test for the future will be
Amazon Go, and its widely promoted plan
to open brick-and-mortar stores. Empowering
customer
relations
representatives to quickly resolve or
escalate ordinary complaints is also an
effective measure. We have all had the
delightful experience where a relatively
minor complaint is met with a quick
agreement to waive a penalty or credit a
finance charge.
For many situations, it’s worth it for
companies to give customer service
So how can public relations and customer personnel the leeway to make quick
service work together? One of the easiest decisions for minor matters. After all, what
Irene Mbonge is a Communications
Expert and a current affairs
enthusiast. She is the interim
Chair, CIPR-Kenya chapter. You
can commune with her on this or
related issues via mail at: Mbonge.
Irene@gmail.com.
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